‘Company of Heroes 2’ war game offends Russians

The ban on the sale in Russia of a Canadian video game about the Red Army reveals that the makers of video games have not become aware of their duty to responsibly shape people’s ideas about our world and our history.

The 1C-SoftClub Company has stopped selling the “Company of
Heroes 2” (COH2) video game in Russia. This real-time strategy game, which was
produced by the Canadian studio Relic Entertainment, relates to events that
happened on the Eastern Front during World War II: The player has to lead
troops of the Red Army in resisting the forces of Nazi Germany.

However, many controversial issues are interwoven with the
gameplay. Thus, in one of the game’s tactics, you can quickly create a lot of
cheap “conscripts” (in terms of conventional game resources) and put them into
action; but, at any attempt to retreat, these units are shot by their own NKVD
detachments.

In one of the episodes of the game, a commander coolly
kills a sentry who left his post to save an officer. Explanation: “You should
not have left your post.” Such controversial and frankly untrue gameplay
features and stories, which are abundant in the game, have naturally led to
resentment from Russian players.

These stories and interpretations also cause genuine
outrage among the veterans of that war. “None of us were ever running away from
machine guns, which were allegedly fired at our backs. We fought for our
Motherland,” Ivan Karnaukhov, a veteran of World War II (or the Great Patriotic
War, as it is called in Russia) who fought in the Battle of Moscow and at the
Battle of Kursk-Orel, said in an interview with Samarskie Izvestia newspaper.

Yevgeny Bazhenov, a popular Russian video blogger nicknamed
the “BadComedian,” made a video in which he humorously analyzes, in detail, the
factual errors and ambiguous moments of the game for more than half an hour. On his initiative, a petition in support of a sales ban of this game in Russia
has been signed by more than 20,000 people.

A similar situation occurred in 2009, with the Russian
version of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.” The scene entitled “No Russian”
had to be cut: In it, a player, as part of a group of Russian terrorists, shot
innocent people in Sheremetyevo Airport. However, that story was different from
the situation with COH2 in several ways.

First of all, the player could avoid shooting personally
and just go along with the bandits (player was in the role of an undercover
special agent who had infiltrated a terrorist cell). Second, in addition to the
“Evil Russians,” there were also the “Good Russians,” who actively helped their
American and British colleagues from the security services. Finally, this was just
one of the game’s episodes, not the basis of the entire gameplay, as it is with
the COH2—which is hard to simply cut from the game.

Still, the most important thing is
that the creators of the “Call of Duty” did not claim to have created an
authentic, historical work. The use of stereotypes, conspiracy theories and
distortion of facts became an integral part of the “Call of Duty” series, while
the Relic Entertainment studio still claims that their game is historical and
based on facts.

Video games have recently started to play a significant
role in mass culture, reaching the same levels of acclaim as movie blockbusters
and outstanding literary works. In addition, given the interactivity and
addictive nature of this media, the importance of video games is only set to grow.
Today, these games, along with books and movies, are already educating children
and adults—shaping their world view, their knowledge, as well as supporting or
refuting certain stereotypes. This fact lays some responsibility on the
creators of this media.

Games are becoming more and more realistic, as well. In the
same COH2, a special ColdTech is responsible for the simulation of cold: The
soldiers freeze, snowstorms suddenly appear, ice and snow react to the fire of
the troops.

However, in terms of cultural and conceptual content, most video
games are still on the level of a maximalist teenager passing through that
“transitional” period. Video games are marked by a certain spirit of rebellion,
hooliganism and permissiveness—and, at first glance, there is nothing wrong
here.

Still, situations similar to what happened with COH2 show
that it is high time this new branch of the entertainment industry start following
certain rules—the same rules that are followed by its “elder brothers” in media
and films. At the very least, video games should not claim historical
authenticity when palming off facts taken out of context.

It is not a bad thing for people to play video games. The
main thing is that these games should not play the people by manipulating their
minds.